Refugees' perception of the shape of Europe: The case from Kos
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.7494/human.2025.24.1.6990Keywords:
Europe, refugees, perception, sketch mapsAbstract
In 2016, 49 migrants on the Greek island of Kos were asked to draw a map of Europe. The study was enriched with observations of refugees’ behavior and several free-form interviews conducted on the Hungarian-Serbian and Macedonian-Greek borders. Analysis of the obtained sketch maps revealed a clear West-centrism, spatial egocentrism, the influence of the “road” experience on the perception of space, and a linear perception of space, reminiscent of historical maps of pilgrimage routes.
Downloads
References
Abikova, J., Piotrowicz, W. (2021). Shaping the Balkan corridor: Development and changes in the migration route 2015–16. International Migration, 59, 5, 248–265.
Anastasiadou, m., marvakis, A., mezidou, P., Speer, m. (2018). From transit hub to dead end: A chronicle of Idomeni. münchen: bordermonitoring.eu e.V. Pobrano z: https://bordermonitoring.eu/wp-content/uploads/reports/bm.eu-2017-idomeni.en.pdf [15.01.2025].
Appleyard, D., Lynch, K., myer, J.R. (1964). The view from the road (Vol. 196, No. 3). Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
Blades, m. (1990). The reliability of data collected from sketch maps. Journal of Environmental Psychology, 10, 4, 327–339.
Cauvin, C. (1999). Pour une approche de la cognition spatiale intra-urbaine. Cybergeo: European Journal of Geography.
Clump, m.A. (2005). Where did you say t hat state was? The effect of availability on a student’s knowledge of the United States. College Student Journal, 39, 4, 759–765.
Dekker, R., Engbersen, G., Klaver, J., Vonk, H. (2018). Smart refugees: How Syrian asylum migrants use social media information in migration decision-making. Social Media + Society, 4, 1. https://doi.org/10.1177/2056305118764439
Didelon, C., De Ruffray, S., Brennetot, A., Emsellem, K., Garnier, B., Guérin-Pace, F. (2011). Mental maps of students (Vol. 5). Pobrano z: https://shs.hal.science/halshs-00654530 [15.01.2025].
Downs, R.m., Stea, D. (1977). Maps in minds: Reflections on cognitive mapping. Harper & Row.
Eco, U., (2011). Wymyślanie wrogów i inne teksty okolicznościowe (tłum. A. Gołębiowska, T. Kwiecień). Poznań: Dom Wydawniczy Rebis.
Evans, G.W. (1980). Environmental cognition. Psychological Bulletin, 88, 2, 259–287.
Friedman, A., Brown, N. R. (2000). Reasoning about geography. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 129, 2, 193–219.
Gieseking, J.J. (2013). Where we go from here: The mental sketch mapping method and its analytic components. Qualitative Inquiry, 19, 9, 712–724.
Gould, P.R., White, R.R. (1968). The mental maps of British school leavers. Regional Studies Association, 2, 2, 161–182. https://doi.org/10.1080/09595236800185171
Kaplan, S. (1973). Cognitive maps in perception and thought. W: R. m. Downs, D. Stea (Ed.), Image and environment: Cognitive mapping and spatial behavior (s. 63–78). Aldine.
Kelly, m. (2019). mapping Syrian refugee border crossings: A feminist approach. Cartographic Perspectives, 93, 34–64. http://dx.doi.org/10.14714/CP93.1406
Kitchin, R.m. (1996). methodological convergence in cognitive mapping research: Investigating configurational knowledge. Journal of Environmental Psychology, 16, 3, 163–185.
Kitchin, R., Blades, m. (2002). The cognition of geographic space (Vol. 4). London: I.B. Tauris.
Kugiel, P. (2016). The refugee crisis in Europe: True causes, false solutions. The Polish Quarterly of International Affairs, 25, 4, 41–59.
Lowrey, R.A. (1973). A method for analysing distance concepts of urban residents. W: R.m. Downs, D. Stea (Ed.), Image and environment: Cognitive mapping and spatial behavior (s. 338–360). Aldine.
Lynch, K. (1964). The image of the city. MIT Press.
Mackworth, A.K. (1977). On reading sketch maps. W: Proceedings of the Fifth International Joint Conference on Artificial Intelligence, IJCAI 1977 (s. 598–606). mIT, Cambridge, mA.
McIntosh, G.C. (2014). The Piri Reis map of 1513 is important because… W: O. Gümüşçü (Ed.), Uluslararası Piri Reis ve Türk Denizcilik Tarihi Sempozyumu: 500 yılın ardından Piri Reis ve eserleri bildiriler, 26–29 Eylül 2013 (s. 133–144). Türk Tarih Kurumu.
Özyeşilpınar, E. (2024). maps as rhetorical tools of colonial power and alternative cartographies: The Americas’ cartographic invention. Rhetoric Review, 43, 2, 116–131.
Pacione, m. (1976). Shape and structure in cognitive maps of Great Britain. Regional Studies, 10, 3, 275–283.
Padło, T. (2013). Postrzeganie Europy przez młodzież w wybranych krajach europejskich. Kraków: Uniwersytet Jagielloński [praca doktorska].
Padło, T. (2015a). White Spots in the Heart of Europe: Sketch maps as a Source of Knowledge About the Perception of Central Europe. Nations & Stereotypes, 25, 172–187.
Padło, T. (2015b). meeting Point. W: S. Ruksza (Ed.), The Wall. Art face to face with borders (s. 23–41). Fundacja Imago mundi: Kraków.
Padło, T., Struś, P., Gil, A. (2021). Danube as a symbol of Europe. Perception of the river from varied geographical perspectives. Plos One, 16, 12, e0260848.
Pelliccia, A. (2019). The evacuation of the Idomeni refugee camp: A case of discursive and iconographical representation on digital media. Athens Journal of Mediterranean Studies, 5, 3, 185–206.
Polonský, F., Novotný, J., Lysák, J. (2010). Cognitive mapping of major world regions among Czech geography students. Journal of Maps, 6, 1, 311–318.
Saarinen, T.F. (1973). Student views of the world. W: R. m. Downs, D. Stea (Ed.), Image and environment: Cognitive mapping and spatial behavior (s. 148–161). Aldine.
Saarinen, T.F. (1987). Centering of mental maps of the world. Discussion Paper Series 87-7.
Saarinen, T.F., macCabe, C. L. (1995). World patterns of geographic literacy based on sketch map quality. The Professional Geographer, 47, 2, 196–204.
Saarinen, T. (2001). World sketch maps: Drawing skills or map knowledge? Research in Geographic Education, 3, 1, 32–50.
Sanders, R.A., Porter, P. W. (1974). Shape in revealed mental maps. Annals of the Association of American Geographers, 64, 2, 258–267.
Sheridan, B. (2020). mapping the way: The use of maps in artistic projects, working with migrants and refugees. Bibliotekarz Podlaski, 47, 2, 217–231.
Simon, H.A. (1957). Models of man: Social and rational; mathematical essays on rational human behavior in society setting. New York: Wiley.
Tolman, E.C. (1948). Cognitive maps in rats and men. Psychological Review, 55, 4, 189–208.
Tversky, B. (1981). Distortions in memory for maps. Cognitive Psychology, 13, 3, 407–433.
Wiegand, P. (1995). Young children’s freehand sketch maps of the world. International Research in Geographical & Environmental Education, 4, 1, 19–28.
Wright, J.K. (1947). Terrae incognitae: The place of the imagination in geography. Annals of the Association of American Geographers, 37, 1, 1–15.
Additional Files
Published
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2025 © Wydawnictwa AGH, Kraków 2024, Creative Commons CC-BY 4.0 License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Authors who publish with this journal agree to the following terms:1) Authors retain copyright and grant the journal right of first publication with the work simultaneously licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License that allows others to share the work with an acknowledgement of the work's authorship and initial publication in this journal.
2) Authors are able to enter into separate, additional contractual arrangements for the non-exclusive distribution of the journal's published version of the work (e.g., post it to an institutional repository or publish it in a book), with an acknowledgement of its initial publication in this journal.
3) Authors are permitted and encouraged to post their work online (e.g., in institutional repositories or on their website) prior to and during the submission process, as it can lead to productive exchanges, as well as earlier and greater citation of published work (See The Effect of Open Access).
